British soldiers care for children as families board last Sudan flight

We’re getting you out of here! British soldiers care for small children as final families board the last UK evacuation flight out of Sudan

• British soldiers and medics have helped evacuate 2,122 Britons from Sudan
• Now race is on for trapped Brits to board the final flight from Port Sudan today 

Heartwarming photographs show British soldiers helping exhausted families board some of the UK’s final evacuation flights from Sudan as gun battles and explosions erupted in the war-torn country.

More than 2,000 Britons – many of whom have risked their lives to reach the evacuation flights in time – have been rescued from the warzone by British soldiers at the Wadi Saeedna airbase in Khartoum.

British soldiers have spent the past week helping the thousands of Britons board 23 flights from the airbase, with many pictured giving parents a helping hand by holding their babies and young children.

In touching scenes, an army medic entertained a baby by raising them in the air while another stuck her tongue out at a young boy being carried by his mother – all in an effort to distract them from the sounds of gunfire around them.

But for the 1,000 terrified Britons still trapped in the country, freedom from the war-torn country is not yet within their grasp. They are desperately racing to board the last evacuation flight from Port Sudan, 500 miles south of Khartoum, before it leaves today.

One soldier from the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment cuddled a toddler before the final flight from Wadi Saeedna airbase in Khartoum on Saturday 

In touching scenes, an army medic entertained a baby by raising them in the air at Wadi Saeedna airbase in Khartoum

Soldier from the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment is pictured smiling with Sudanese locals

The Foreign Office yesterday urged all Brits still in Sudan to travel to the southern port by 12pm local time (11am GMT) in order to board the final evacuation flight and escape the deadly violence that has killed 528 people so far. It is not clear if the plane has left Sudan yet.

So far 2,122 Britons – many of them young children – have been evacuated from Sudan on 23 flights after somehow surviving the nightmarish journey through the violent streets of Khartoum to reach the Wadi Saeedna airbase.

Britons described seeing thieves and killers roaming the streets of the capital, with the corpses of civilians killed in the fighting between warring factions littering the ground in scenes that have been compared to the horror film The Purge.

Heartwarming photographs show British soldiers at the Wadi Saeedna airbase cuddling and playing with children in an effort to provide some form of comfort after their terrifying and gruelling journey to the evacuation flights.

One soldier from the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment cuddled a toddler while other soldiers helped carry the luggage of exhausted families across the tarmac before they boarded the final UK flight from Khartoum.

Evacuation flights from Khartoum have now stopped amid heavy violence there and Brits only have one more chance to escape on a British evacuation flight. 

Britons are now risking their lives – all without a military escort – to make the perilous 500 mile journey south to Port Sudan in the hope of boarding the final flight. 

But there are fears that many will not be able to reach the final evacuation flight before it departs due to how dangerous it is in the country.

A British soldier sticks her tongue out at a young boy being carried by his mother before the family boarded the final British flight from Khartoum

The last evacuees and military personnel board an RAF aircraft bound for Cyprus from Wadi Seidna Air Base in Sudan on Saturday

Pictured: Military personnel and the last evacuees boarding a RAF aircraft bound for Cyprus, during the final days of evacuations, at Wadi Seidna Air Base, in Sudan, on Saturday

Pictured: British Citizens from Sudan waiting at Wadi Seidna airport in Khartoum, Sudan ahead of boarding an RAF aircrafts bound for Cyprus on Saturday

Pictured: Smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, on Monday

It is understood the flight from Port Sudan is exceptional and would repatriate a limited number Brits trapped in the country. 

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: ‘Evacuation flights have ended from Wadi Saeedna but our rescue efforts continue from Port Sudan.’

The British Government has agreed to include terrified NHS doctors without UK passports on its final journeys amid criticism over the scope of its eligibility criteria for evacuation.

Last week, NHS doctors queued for hours at the airfield in Khartoum after risking their lives to reach the RAF planes – only to be turned away by British officials at the evacuation site because they did not hold British passports.

Flights had previously been limited to British nationals and their immediate family.

For those left behind in Sudan, face an uncertain future. 

Millions trapped in the capital and beyond have sheltered in their homes with dwindling food and water and frequent power cuts, as fighter jets thundering through the sky on bombing raids have drawn heavy anti-aircraft fire.

‘Warplanes are flying over southern Khartoum and anti-aircraft guns are firing at them,’ said one resident, while another witness said he was also hearing ‘loud gunfire’.

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, have agreed multiple, poorly observed ceasefires and extended the latest by 72 hours late on Sunday, with each side repeatedly blaming the other for the frequent violations.

While foreign nations including the UK have evacuated thousands of their citizens by air, road and sea, some 50,000 Sudanese have fled overland to neighbours, said the UN. 

Sudan’s turmoil has seen aid workers killed, hospital bombed, humanitarian facilities looted, and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.

Pictured: A family board an RAF Plane bound for Cyprusduring the evacuation from Wadi Seidna Air Base in Sudan on Saturday

Pictured: Military personnel boarding a RAF aircraft bound for Cyprus, during the final days of evacuations, at Wadi Seidna Air Base, in Sudan

Pictured: Military personnel boarding a RAF aircraft bound for Cyprus, during the final days of evacuations, at Wadi Seidna Air Base, in Sudan

Pictured: Military personnel onboard a RAF aircraft bound for Cyprus, during the final days of evacuations, at Wadi Seidna Air Base, in Sudan

Pictured: British soldiers stand at the Wadi Saeedna Air Base in Khartoum during the final evacuation flights 

Pictured: Evacuees and military personnel at Wadi Seidna airport in Khartoum, Sudan waiting to board an RAF aircraft bound for Cyprus on Sunday

‘The scale and speed of what is unfolding is unprecedented in Sudan,’ said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres. ‘We are extremely concerned by the immediate as well as long-term impact on all people in Sudan, and the broader region.’

Top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths was heading to the region to help bring relief to the millions ‘whose lives have turned upside down overnight’.

‘The humanitarian situation is reaching breaking point,’ Dujarric said.

At least 528 people have been killed and almost 4,600 wounded in the violence, according to Sudan’s health ministry, but the real death toll is feared to be far higher.

Fighting has spread across Sudan, including to the long-troubled Darfur region.

The UN said at least 96 people were reported killed in El Geneina, West Darfur, where supplies were seen strewn across the floors of badly damaged hospitals.

Daglo’s RSF emerged from the notorious Janjaweed that were unleashed in a scorched-earth campaign in Darfur from 2003 by former strongman Omar al-Bashir, who faces charges of war crimes and genocide.

The RSF include fighters who have seen battle in Yemen where they were sent to back a Saudi-led campaign supporting the government against Huthi rebels.

Further complicating Sudan’s battlefield situation, Central Reserve Police were being deployed on the side of the army across Khartoum to ‘protect citizens’ properties’ from looting.

The UN has warned the unrest could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 16 million people already needed aid to stave off famine.

Only 16 percent of Khartoum’s health facilities are functioning, says the UN World Health Organisation.

The fighting was pushing Sudan’s already ailing health sector toward ‘disaster’, warned the WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed al-Mandhari.

He warned of the growing threat of cholera, malaria and other diseases as the rainy season nears and safe water supplies are becoming scarce.

A first Red Cross plane on Sunday took eight tonnes of medical supplies from Jordan to Port Sudan, which has served as an evacuation hub.

The UN World Food Programme has resumed activities in Sudan after over two weeks of suspension following the deaths of three of its aid workers.

Regional powers have joined negotiations to help end the violence.

An envoy of Burhan’s met on Sunday in Riyadh with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who called for the restoration of calm in Sudan.

Egypt, in an Arab League emergency meeting in Cairo, proposed a draft resolution Monday that called for an ‘immediate and comprehensive cessation’ of fighting.

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